Danish Crown focusing on China

The Danish meat cooperation Danish Crown will intensify attempts to sell
its pork in China.

According to the meat cooperation, China is key to compensate for the bad
market situation in the pig industry, due to staggering growths in feed
costs.

Due to a growing demand for pork, chances for success in China
are better than ever, says sales director Jens Haven Christiansen. "Price
increases of 75% show that there is an increasing demand in China to import
fresh meat."

Export permissionLast February, the Chinese
authorities granted an export permission to the Danish cooperative pork
processing industry (in which Danish Crown is the most important) for all its
slaughterhouses. However, for now, the revenues have been confined to selling
pig toes and pig ears.

Exports of more expensive parts hitherto has
not proven to be worthwhile, but that situation is about to change, says
Christiansen.

Apart from a focus on China, Danish Crown also hopes to
focus on the Russian market which is also developing
positively.

UrgencyThere is a sense of urgency to develop
these new markets rapidly, Danish Crown admits. "Feed price increases of 50%
make the situation grave for many delivering companies.

Increased
exports to these new markets releases the pressure on the European markets,
causing price pressure to decrease as well.

Second
largestDanish Crown is the world's second largest pig processing
company, slaughtering 22 million pigs annually.

Last week, the
world's biggest pig processing company Smithfield also revealed agreements to
ship pork to China.